Earnings Preview for Aug 25 - 29

The final week of August will feature earnings reports from S&P 500 members Big Lots (BIG), Dell (DELL), Novell (NOVL), Sears Holding (SHLD) and Tiffany (TIF). Overall, it will be a quiet week for earnings with 77 companies confirmed to report.

The economic schedule is pretty full, led by the minutes from the August Fed meeting. I don't anticipate any surprises from the notes. Other key data will include:

• Monday: July existing home sales
• Tuesday: July new home sales, August Conference Board consumer confidence index, August Fed minutes
• Wednesday: July durable goods orders, weekly crude inventories
• Thursday: Preliminary second-quarter GDP, weekly initial jobless claims
• Thursday: July personal income and spending, August Chicago PMI, revised August University of Michigan consumer confidence

The Federal Reserve's web site does not list any upcoming speeches.

The U.S. financial markets will be closed on Monday, Sep 1, in observance of Labor Day. Ahead of the holiday, I expect volume to remain modest, at best.

Don't use the quiet markets as an excuse to stop researching new investment ideas. The most successful investors look for new ideas everyday and so should you.

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Companies That Could Issue Positive Earnings Surprises during the Week of Aug 25 - 29

A trend towards thriftiness has helped Big Lots (BIG). The closeout retailer preannounced a 1.9% increase in sales to $1.096 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.8%. Nearly all of the covering brokerage analysts raised their second-quarter forecasts in response, pushing the consensus earnings estimate four cents higher to 27 cents per share. BIG has topped expectations for 9 consecutive quarters. Big Lots is scheduled to report on Tuesday, Aug 26, before the start of trading.

Dollar Tree (DLTR) preannounced second-quarter sales of $1.09 billion, a 12.5% increase over a year prior. Same-store sales rose 6.5%. The majority of the 9 covering brokerage analysts responded with revised profit projections. These revisions led to a 4-cent increase in the consensus earnings estimate to 40 cents. DLTR has exceeded expectations for 3 consecutive quarters. Dollar Tree is scheduled to report on Wednesday, Aug 27, before the start of trading.

Companies That Could Issue Negative Earnings Surprises during the Week of Aug 25 - 29

Last quarter, Omnivision Technologies (OVTI) missed earnings expectations by 3 cents with profits of 17 cents per share. Brokerage analysts are bracing for another disappointing earnings report. During the past 30 days, 5 of the 9 covering analysts cut their fiscal first-quarter projections. These cuts have led to a 3-cent drop in the consensus earnings estimate to 16 cents per share. The most accurate estimate is more bearish at 15 cents per share. Omnivision Technologies is scheduled to report on Thursday, Aug 28, after the close of trading.

Charles Rotblut, CFA is the senior market analyst for Zacks.com. He can be reached at crotblut@zacks.com.

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Earnings Calendar

Here is a list of companies that we have confirmed will report during the week of Aug 25 - 29¹.

Company	Ticker	Zacks Consensus Estimate	Year Ago Actual	Last Qtr Surprise	Report Date	Report Time
Appld Signal	APSG	$0.15	$0.08	6.7%	8/26/2008	AMC
Bank Montreal	BMO	$1.22	$1.22	(4.6%)	8/26/2008	N/A
Bank Of Nova Sc	BNS	$0.97	$0.97	(3.0%)	8/26/2008	N/A
Big Lots Inc	BIG	$0.27	$0.21	13.5%	8/26/2008	BTO
Borders Group	BGP	($0.28)	($0.26)	(17.8%)	8/26/2008	AMC
Chicos Fas Inc	CHS	$0.05	$0.22	16.7%	8/26/2008	BTO
Corinthian Col	COCO	$0.09	$0.04	6.7%	8/26/2008	BTO
Daktronics Inc	DAKT	$0.18	$0.17	75.0%	8/26/2008	BTO
Dycom Inds	DY	$0.21	$0.35	16.7%	8/26/2008	AMC
Hain Celestial	HAIN	$0.32	$0.30	0.0%	8/26/2008	AMC
J Crew Group	JCG	$0.33	$0.32	2.1%	8/26/2008	AMC
Ltx Corp	LTXX	$0.03	($0.07)	200.0%	8/26/2008	AMC
Rio Tinto-Adr	RTP	$15.70	$999.00	N/A	8/26/2008	N/A
Sanderson Farms	SAFM	$0.00	$1.51	528.6%	8/26/2008	BTO
Smithfield Food	SFD	($0.07)	$0.47	(85.7%)	8/26/2008	BTO
Tuesday Morning	TUES	($0.07)	$0.05	(10.0%)	8/26/2008	BTO
Amer Eagle Outf	AEO	$0.28	$0.37	10.5%	8/27/2008	BTO
Brown Shoe Co	BWS	$0.06	$0.30	(44.4%)	8/27/2008	BTO
Cdn Impl Bk	CM	$1.68	$2.19	(8.1%)	8/27/2008	N/A
Charming Shoppe	CHRS	$0.00	$0.14	183.3%	8/27/2008	BTO
Coldwater Creek	CWTR	$0.01	$0.09	33.3%	8/27/2008	AMC
Dollar Tree Inc	DLTR	$0.40	$0.33	17.1%	8/27/2008	BTO
Elong Inc-Adr	LONG	($0.06)	($0.01)	(800.0%)	8/27/2008	N/A
Finlay Entrprse	FNLY	($1.19)	($0.93)	2.5%	8/27/2008	BTO
Fuelcell Energy	FCEL	($0.26)	($0.24)	(40.7%)	8/27/2008	AMC
Giant Interactv	GA	$0.19	$999.00	25.0%	8/27/2008	AMC
Greif Bros-Cl A	GEF	$1.11	$0.90	5.8%	8/27/2008	AMC
Heico Corp	HEI	$0.46	$0.40	2.3%	8/27/2008	AMC
Jo-Ann Stores A	JAS	($0.66)	($0.76)	1100.0%	8/27/2008	AMC
Mens Wearhouse	MW	$0.70	$1.00	(9.1%)	8/27/2008	AMC
Osi Systems Inc	OSIS	$0.38	$0.24	17.6%	8/27/2008	BTO
Sigma Designs	SIGM	$0.28	$0.32	(46.0%)	8/27/2008	N/A
Solarfun Power	SOLF	$0.22	$0.05	128.6%	8/27/2008	BTO
Solera Holdings	SLH	$0.29	$0.23	10.7%	8/27/2008	AMC
Sport Supply Gp	RBI	$0.15	($0.03)	13.6%	8/27/2008	BTO
Sws Group Inc	SWS	$0.28	$0.25	33.3%	8/27/2008	AMC
Synovis Lif Tec	SYNO	$0.11	$0.10	11.1%	8/27/2008	BTO
Talbots Inc	TLB	($0.33)	($0.25)	75.0%	8/27/2008	BTO
Tivo Inc	TIVO	($0.02)	($0.11)	500.0%	8/27/2008	AMC
Valuevision Cla	VVTV	($0.27)	($0.11)	(28.1%)	8/27/2008	AMC
Xeta Tech Inc	XETA	$0.05	$0.04	0.0%	8/27/2008	AMC
Aruba Networks	ARUN	($0.06)	($0.04)	(16.7%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Ata Inc-Adr	ATAI	$0.06	$999.00	N/A	8/28/2008	N/A
China Fin Onlin	JRJC	$0.14	$0.08	25.0%	8/28/2008	AMC
Conns Inc	CONN	$0.38	$0.40	19.1%	8/28/2008	BTO
Credence Sys Cp	CMOS	($0.05)	$0.09	(25.0%)	8/28/2008	N/A
Del Monte Foods	DLM	($0.05)	$0.03	11.5%	8/28/2008	BTO
Delias Inc	DLIA	($0.17)	($0.16)	(62.5%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Dell Inc	DELL	$0.36	$0.34	11.8%	8/28/2008	AMC
Dollar Finl Cp	DLLR	$0.59	$0.48	(1.8%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Energy Conv Dev	ENER	$0.20	($0.16)	725.0%	8/28/2008	BTO
Esterline Tech	ESL	$0.64	$0.61	9.1%	8/28/2008	AMC
Fleetwood Entrp	FLE	($0.18)	($0.03)	46.2%	8/28/2008	BTO
Freds Inc	FRED	$0.10	$0.08	12.5%	8/28/2008	BTO
Genesco Inc	GCO	$0.04	$0.00	55.6%	8/28/2008	BTO
Jamba Inc	JMBA	$0.02	$0.04	(55.6%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Kirklands Inc	KIRK	($0.12)	($0.29)	63.3%	8/28/2008	BTO
La Barge	LB	$0.27	$0.18	0.0%	8/28/2008	BTO
Layne Christens	LAYN	$0.62	$0.60	0.0%	8/28/2008	BTO
Magma Design	LAVA	$0.00	($0.03)	(11.1%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Marvell Tech Gp	MRVL	$0.13	($0.04)	266.7%	8/28/2008	AMC
Micros Sys	MCRS	$0.33	$0.33	3.5%	8/28/2008	AMC
Net 1 Ueps Tech	UEPS	$0.38	$0.31	23.7%	8/28/2008	AMC
Netezza Corp	NZ	$0.03	($0.19)	0.0%	8/28/2008	BTO
Novell Inc	NOVL	$0.03	$0.01	25.0%	8/28/2008	AMC
Omnivision Tech	OVTI	$0.16	$0.15	(15.0%)	8/28/2008	AMC
Petsmart Inc	PETM	$0.28	$0.36	3.2%	8/28/2008	AMC
Royal Bank Cda	RY	$1.05	$1.03	(32.0%)	8/28/2008	N/A
Sears Hldg Cp	SHLD	$0.36	$1.17	(394.4%)	8/28/2008	BTO
Sourceforge Inc	LNUX	($0.01)	$0.01	0.0%	8/28/2008	AMC
Telvent Git Sa	TLVT	$0.28	$0.19	19.4%	8/28/2008	BTO
Tiffany & Co	TIF	$0.55	$0.45	22.0%	8/28/2008	BTO
Toronto Dom Bnk	TD	$1.40	$1.18	(7.0%)	8/28/2008	BTO
Williams-Sonoma	WSM	$0.08	$0.24	400.0%	8/28/2008	N/A
Wind River Sys	WIND	$0.02	$0.05	144.4%	8/28/2008	AMC
Zale Corp New	ZLC	($0.55)	$0.00	2.33%	8/28/2008	N/A
Knightsbridge	VLCCF	$0.54	$0.42	(20.9%)	8/29/2008	N/A

BMO = Before The Market Open, AMC = After Market Close

¹Some of the companies listed in the earnings calendar may not be in the Zacks Rank universe.

Read the full analyst report on NOVL

Read the full analyst report on OVTI

Read the full analyst report on BIG

Read the full analyst report on DLTR

Read the full analyst report on SHLD

Read the full analyst report on DELL

Read the full analyst report on TIF